Even though it was eight years ago, I still remember how I felt after Barack Obama won the 2008 election.
I felt more than just hope as I watched the newly-elected president take the stage in Grant Park, Chicago, to give his victory speech. I felt an unbridled, exuberant sense of optimism about our future.
During the 2008 campaign, the young, bright-eyed senator from Illinois entered the national stage with a simple message to voters.
Voters wanted ‘change we can believe in.’ And boy, were we hungry for it.
Bush’s presidency left our country exhausted and anxious almost beyond repair. Our involvement in the Iraq War, troubles of the Great Recession and mishandling of Hurricane Katrina made things grim.
In the shadow of these events, Sen. Obama tapped into enthusiasm from grassroots volunteers, progressives and supporters to easily carry the election.
On the Democratic side of our current presidential race, we have another candidate campaigning on the promise of change: Bernie Sanders.
When he first announced that he was running for president, few could have predicted that a self-styled Democratic Socialist could mount a serious challenge to Hillary Clinton.
Now, according to NBC News, Sen. Sanders is polling within just two points of Secretary Clinton in Iowa with just 12 days to go before for the first contest in the campaign.
Sen. Sanders’ main appeal to voters lies in his vision of a “political revolution.”
Some of the changes he wants to make include creating a single-payer health care system, making public colleges tuition-free, and breaking up the nation’s largest banks.
As a progressive, and someone who closely follows politics, I initially became very excited when I first heard of these ideas. I felt like the same person who watched Obama’s victory speech on that cold night almost eight years ago.
I caution against getting caught up in flashy ideology from politicians without hearing about the feasibility of their plans.
Take the issue of single-payer health care, for example. As Secretary Clinton noted in the Democratic debate Sunday, universal health care has been a goal of Democratic presidents since the days of Harry S Truman.
But the chances of universal health care becoming a reality in our current political environment, however, are not promising. Republicans have controlled at least one house of Congress since 2010, for example.
Even if Democrats found a way to take back control of Congress, its chances of becoming law are still slim. The Affordable Care Act, Obama’s signature domestic policy achievement, barely got enough votes to become law even with Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress.
As we move forward in this election season, take Sen. Sanders’ and virtually every other candidate’s, claims about change with both a grain of salt and moderate expectations.
Lasting political change can happen, of course. More often than not, however, it doesn’t happen overnight.
ttfitzpa@indiana.edu
@tfitzwrites
